Pasta – Page 3 – The Unvegan

5/14/2010 Reviews Los Angeles

More Than Ice Cream at Al Gelato

With a name like Al Gelato, you kind of expect to be walking into a gelato shop. This is not the case with Al Gelato in Beverly Hills. Sure, the place has gelato, but it is also a full-on Italian restaurant. Aside from realizing that it wasn’t just a gelato place, I also found that Al Gelato didn’t carry a lot of the pretension that Italian restaurants seem to have. There was no mood lighting, no fancy table cloths and no people with strange accents that weren’t quite Italian. Despite this, I found that the prices still fell into what you would expect in Beverly Hills, with very little under 10 bucks and pasta prices jumping up to 15 if you wanted any meat.

Beverly Hills Gnocchi Italian Los Angeles Meat Meatballs Pasta Restaurants

5/7/2010 Reviews Los Angeles

A Little Italy at Maggiano’s

To grab some dinner, and take advantage of one of our seemingly endless restaurant gift cards, the girlfriend and I headed to Maggiano’s Little Italy next to The Grove. When we arrived, there was a pretty long line, but their bar had a first come, first served policy that had the full menu and we quickly found ourselves a nice table there.

Although Maggiano’s is a national chain, I’d never been and dove right in to the menu head first. I found a few things that looked great and had a hard time narrowing down to an appetizer and main course. Fortunately, I found that one of the main courses I was staring down also repeated as an appetizer. Such genius. This was the four cheese ravioli, mmm four cheeses. These were in some pesto-alfredo sauce with mozzarella. After a little browning in the oven, this ravioli looked great and tasted just as good as it looked. The pesto sauce was nice and creamy and although the marinara sauce was unnecessary, it was nice to feel thought-of.

Chains Italian Los Angeles Maggiano's Little Italy Meat Mid City National Chains Pasta Restaurants Sausages

4/26/2010 Reviews Santa Monica

Surprised by Spumoni

We headed over to Santa Monica to grab some pizza. Unfortunately, once we had parked and filled the meter, we realized that the pizza place we wanted no longer existed. Unwilling to let a few quarters go to waste, we decided to take a little walk and see if any other restaurant might be able to tickle our fancy. What we found was Spumoni. Though not a pizza place, at least it was Italian.

Gnocchi Italian Los Angeles Meat Pasta Restaurants Santa Monica Spumoni

12/28/2009 Reviews Marina del Rey

Reliable Italian at C & O Cucina

Not to be confused with C & O Trattoria, C & O Cucina is just down the street in Marina Del Rey. Although the location is completely different, the menu seems to be the same as the other C & O. One thing it is missing, though, is the fun outdoor atmosphere. Nonetheless, I had a restaurant.com gift certificate so I had to try it out.

C & O Cucina Chicken Italian Los Angeles Marina Del Rey Meat Pasta Ravioli Restaurant.com Restaurants Trattoria

9/14/2009 Reviews Hermosa Beach

A Wine Cellar Dinner at Bottle Inn

For a restaurant called the Bottle Inn, you would expect them to have a great selection of wines. What you wouldn’t expect, however, is for their wine cellar to become a dining room. Nonetheless, if you have a big enough group, that is where they seat you. It’s almost like a tease to should you all the amazing wines you could be drinking, yet it’s still pretty damn cool. Although the wine was quite distracting, I was able to take my mind off of it long enough to read the menu.

Everything on the menu looked amazing and it took me a long time to decide, but in the end it had to be the Gnocchi al Pesto. While waiting, we drank some fine Napa wine and stared at the stack of Opus wine that was probably worth more than my life.

Bottle Inn California Cellar Gnocchi Italian Los Angeles Opus Pasta Restaurants Wine

1/28/2009 Reviews Los Angeles

C & O Trattoria

Italian food is often a difficult food to spend a lot of money on. It is hard to justify dropping $15 on a meal when I can easily boil pasta, microwave some Classico sauce and sprinkle some parmesan on top. C & O Trattoria, however, is a place that exceeds anything I could provide in my own kitchen.

The ambience itself makes you feel like you really walked into a restaurant in Italy, with outdoor seating, a fountain and strings of lights. Even the walls are painted to make it feel like you are sitting out on the street rather than inside a restaurant. I took my seat and started looking at the menu when the waiter began bringing out my unlimited garlic knots. The waiter could hardly bring them out fast enough for me to eat them.

C & O Trattoria Food Italian Los Angeles Marina Del Rey Meat Pasta Restaurants Rigatoni Venice

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